Welcome to Mindful Monday, where we bridge the gap between Second Language Acquisition research and the practical realities of both your classroom and your business. Each week, Leo and I share research-backed insights to help you sharpen your classroom teaching while building the freedom to work on your own terms.
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Welcome to October! In Canada, this means beautiful colours, Thanksgiving, and new Teacher Talking Time podcast episodes! We’ve got lots of great things coming over the next two months, so stay tuned for that.
In this week’s Mindful Monday, you’ll see:
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New podcast episode with Tracey Derwing on intelligibility
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We’re interviewing Jeremy Harmer this week – questions?
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CPD options
Hope you enjoy this week’s edition.
🎙️ The Accent Reduction Myth:
What Actually Makes You Easy to Understand – Tracey Derwing
“Trying to change somebody’s accent isn’t the goal – accent itself is not a problem. Our goal is to find out what affects intelligibility and comprehensibility so people can express themselves effortlessly without setting them up for a target they can never achieve.”
In our latest Teacher Talking Time podcast episode, we sit down with Dr. Tracey Derwing.
Pronunciation teaching is often lumped in with intelligibility and comprehensibility, two concepts we go over with Tracey. She also has done a lot of great work here in Canada in the newcomer segment and has analyzed comprehensibility issues in the workplace.
Both what newcomer speakers and listeners can do better and what role native speakers play in this, too.
Watch the episode here:
“If you can’t be understood, your identity can’t be expressed.”
Tracey is Professor Emerita of Educational Psychology at the University of Alberta and an Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University. Co-author of Pronunciation Fundamentals, she is an internationally recognized researcher whose work focuses on L2 pronunciation, intelligibility, pragmatics, and workplace integration for newcomers.
She also conducted the longest longitudinal study in pronunciation, following participants for over a decade to track improvement.
In detail in this episode, we cover:
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How working with Vietnamese immigrants in Alberta launched decades of groundbreaking pronunciation research.
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Breaking down the exact differences between Accent, Intelligibility (message delivery), and Comprehensibility (listener effort) in plain language.
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Why spending classroom time on low-impact sounds (like /θ/ vs /t/) wastes energy, and how focusing on high functional load contrasts unlocks immediate clarity.
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Shifting the burden of understanding off immigrant speakers and onto listeners, employers, and workplaces.
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Red flags in the “accent reduction” market and why chasing “native-like” speech is an unhelpful trap.
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How teaching predictable social routines dramatically improves comprehensibility without changing sound production.
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Evidence proving that adult learners continue to improve naturally over a decade simply by staying engaged and using the language
Listen to the episode and all episodes of Teacher Talking Time wherever you get your podcasts.
🎙️ Do you have any questions for Jeremy Harmer?
Some authors become familiar names long before you get the chance to meet them.
For many English language teachers, Jeremy Harmer is one of those names.
Perhaps you encountered The Practice of English Language Teaching during your training. Perhaps you’ve returned to it while planning lessons or trying to make sense of something happening in your classroom.
We’re delighted that Jeremy will be our guest on Teacher Talking Time. We’re sitting down in the studio with him on Wednesday.
One thing we value about these conversations is the opportunity to put teachers’ everyday questions directly to the people whose work they’ve encountered.
So we’d love your input:
What would you ask Jeremy Harmer?
It could be a teaching dilemma, an idea you’ve reconsidered over the years, or a question about the gap between teacher training and classroom realities.
How to submit your question:
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Comment below [via the Substack app or web option]
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Reply to this email [if you’re reading in your inbox]
🎙️ Level Up Your Career (On Your Own Terms)
Are you looking to refresh your teaching practice, gain new CPD, or finally take the leap into education entrepreneurship? It’s easy to put our own growth on the back burner, but investing in yourself is the ultimate form of professional mindfulness.
We’ve put our best CPD resources, business training, and courses in one place: our Lye High-Achieving Teachers community on Skool.
Whether you’re looking to sharpen your classroom skills or build your own independent teaching business, we have a pricing plan designed to fit your current budget.
Best of all, there are no long-term commitments – you can cancel at any time.
👉 Explore our Skool community & find your plan here
Take a small step for your career this week. We’d love to welcome you to the community!
That’s all for this edition. Talk next week,
Leo and Andrew
Want to grab a coffee and strategize the next step of your business?
If you enjoyed this, the best compliment we could receive would be if you shared it with one person or restacked it on Substack.
What we do at Learn YOUR English
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